When Clark County commissioners signed the now-invalid 2004 Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Cowlitz Tribe, they did not know a casino was in the works, although one suspected it.

They did not know the tribe would apply to make 152 acres of Clark County into a reservation and restored lands -- taking away local control of land use and removing it from the tax rolls.

And they certainly did not anticipate that a wealthy East Coast tribe -- owner of the second-largest casino in the country -- would parachute in and throw its massive financial and legal muscle behind the Cowlitz Tribe's goals, which mushroomed into a proposal to build the largest casino on the West Coast.

What the Cowlitz Tribe failed to anticipate is that its not-at-all-silent partner, the Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut, would fall on tough times: Earnings at its behemoth Connecticut casino were down 23.2 percent last quarter from the same quarter a year earlier, Moody's is threatening to downgrade its bonds, and some of its business partners have served the Mohegan Tribe poorly.

With the chief financer of the Cowlitz casino under siege, the old MOU defunct, the EIS incomplete, and local governments -- and public opinion -- lining up against the project, there is no reason for the county to rush into a new MOU that would signal its tacit approval of a Clark County casino.

An article in the March 24 issue of Forbes, titled "With Friends Like These," examines several of the Mohegan Tribe's recent travails, caused largely by poor choices in business partners. (We would argue that the reporters overlooked at least one.) The subtitle is, "The Mohegan tribe wants to expand its casinos nationally. Maybe it shoulda stayed home."

We agree.